With this in mind, let’s reflect on a primary aspect that unfolded in the sky over the past few years. On Nov. 4, 2008, Saturn and Uranus opposed one another for the first time since 1967. Over the next two years, they opposed four more times— Feb. 5, 2009, Sept. 15, 2009, April 26, 2010, and July 26, 2010. While other notable astrological events occurred during this period, not the least of which was Pluto’s ingress into Capricorn in 2008, the Saturn-Uranus opposition seemed to pound its stamp upon the period with a loud thud and unmistakable clarity. Daily we read in the headlines that the earth was wracked with convulsions; devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile; global warming and rising sea levels; volcanic explosions in Iceland; and the never ending Gulf oil spill disaster. Similar upheavals afflicted the political sphere—record deficit spending; tea party revolts; Islamic extremists within the United States; the immigration crisis in Arizona; health care reform and the increasing polarization of American political life.

Connecting the Dots

As significant as these events were individually—both ecologically and culturally—it is not immediately clear how they might be connected unless one understands the meaning of Saturn opposed Uranus. From the time Obama was elected in November of 2008 and through the summer of 2010, this astrological aspect wreaked havoc within our cultural, political, and economic landscape—not to mention our atmosphere and oceans. Seen from the retrospective of archetypal astrology, however, these events can be understood as necessary precursors and catalysts to a new order that emerged most decisively in the autumn of 2010.

Because astrology is an archetypal (metaphorical) language, it enables us to track meaningful correspondences between human experiences and planetary alignments. Terrestrial events occurring within the same time frame may be substantively different—e.g., a volcanic eruption is different than a tax revolt; yet, their qualitative similarity (both are uprisings) suggests they may be archetypally connected. Not only can these events be qualitatively similar at different dimensional levels—cultural and ecological—but more importantly each event is consistent in meaning with a single astronomical corollary. Just so with all the other events listed above; each can be understood in the context of Saturn opposed Uranus. Astrology, in short, reveals qualities of durations of time. In so doing, it enables us to see connections between events that are substantively different but meaningfully consistent at an archetypal level.

Configurational Meaning

When viewed in the context of recent events, the Saturn-Uranus opposition is quite telling. Uranus signifies change, revolution, and liberation (or liberalism). When occupying the sign of Pisces (2003-2011), the Uranian impulse for progressive, humanitarian action operates from the perspective of compassion for human suffering and a transcendent vision for a more ideal world. Saturn, on the other hand, is the antithesis of Uranus in that it represents structure, limits, and control. When occupying Virgo (2007-2010), the Saturnian impulse to regulate operated in a context of pragmatic concern for efficient problem solving. Saturn, signifying the principle of contraction, tried to slow or reduce the changes that progressive Uranus was hell bent to achieve. It also assumed the burden of cleaning up problems that resulted from Piscean excesses and inefficiencies.

With Uranus and Saturn opposed in Pisces and Virgo, it was no surprise that a socio-political conflict erupted between two dominant ideas—visionary change in the service of a utopian ideal and reactionary resistance for the sake of traditional values. In short, political partisanship intensified during the period that these two planets were polarized in the heavens. On Nov. 4, 2008, the very day Barack Obama was elected president, Saturn in Virgo formed its first exact opposition to Uranus in Pisces. Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that Obama and the Democrats carried the Uranian banner for progress and change, whereas the old war horse, Senator John McCain, embodied the Saturnian principle of experience, caution, and restraint. The Saturn-Uranus polarity of the old and the new, tradition and change, was never more apparent than in the choice Americans faced between the aged, weathered John McCain 1 and the young, exciting Barack Obama who promised to change Washington and bridge the partisan divide.

It is perhaps ironic that Obama’s idealistic agenda for creating a better world—rescue of failed businesses and banks, universal health care, amnesty for illegal aliens, and climate legislation—has merely exacerbated divisions between the two parties. As the last sign of the zodiac, Pisces symbolizes our wish to experience unity on multiple levels—spiritual, social, and economic. It is associated with charity, the impulse to rescue, and a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. During the 2009 debate over the stimulus package and deficit spending, the imprint of Uranus in Pisces was evident amongst liberal Democrats who were willing to spend nearly a trillion dollars in hopes of saving jobs and rescuing failing businesses. Conversely, conservative Republicans (Saturn/Virgo) opposed their efforts and argued for fiscal restraint in light of our ever expanding federal debt.

This same archetypal dynamic was highlighted in the 2010 fight over health care reform. Democrats produced a comprehensive bill designed to protect all uninsured Americans—an extra 40 million to attain unity—at the cost of an additional trillion dollars to the ballooning federal deficit. From a Uranus in Pisces perspective, financial sacrifice in the service of social justice was not only compassionate but imperative. Once again, recalcitrant Republicans took the Saturn in Virgo side by analyzing, critiquing, and downsizing the bill in hopes of achieving an outcome that was maximally efficient and affordable.

The Uranian impulse for revolution was not limited to the liberal side of the isle. Concerns over out-of-control government spending, fears of inflation, and higher taxes triggered the conservative tea party movement (Uranus rules movements and causes). Tea party protests erupted all over the land and foreshadowed a conservative revolution against “big government.” With the pork laden stimulus package, rescue of the car industry, and the mandating of universal health care, the Obama administration was widely perceived as having over-reached its powers. This activated a reactionary pushback as evidenced by the decidedly conservative trend of state elections in 2009—e.g., Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts to fill the senate seat vacated by the death of liberal lion Ted Kennedy, and populist Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey who spearheaded austerity measures in New Jersey. Polls throughout 2010 predicted a conservative backlash in the upcoming mid-term elections slated for November. Long standing Democratic incumbents were on the chopping block and feared a virtual bloodbath for their party.

These two antithetical principles—Saturn and Uranus—were equally at play in virtually every movement, cause, or socio-cultural trend of 2009-2010, whether within government or without. In an opposition, neither side of a phenomenon is wholly defined by one planet; rather, each side evidences both planetary principles even as the struggle appears to pit one planet against the other. The goal, as always with an opposition, is to arrive at a point of compromise and balance. Prior to Saturn’s ingress into Virgo and its first opposition to Uranus in 2008, it could be argued that things were archetypally out-of-balance.

A main reason was that from 2003-2010 Uranus occupied the sign ruled by Neptune (Pisces) and Neptune occupied the sign ruled by Uranus (Aquarius), a situation called mutual reception in which each planet activates the other in a closed, self-stimulating feedback cycle of reciprocal influence. This is like putting Uranus in Pisces on steroids. Given that both planetary positions are oriented toward altruistic values of tolerance, compassion, and inclusivity, it was inevitable that the American cultural ethos would trend toward an escalating cycle of progressive political and economic ideologies, inspired egalitarianism, idealization of tolerance and inclusivity, compassion for minority movements, multiculturalism, pluralism, moral relativism, the nanny state, and political correctness run amok—in short, a virtual triumph of liberalism that culminated in the ascendancy of Barak Obama and control of both houses of Congress in the election of 2008.

When Saturn opposed Uranus for the first time later that fall (and Pluto entered Capricorn), critics began to point out that society had literally gone soft, from widespread childhood obesity to a prescription drug epidemic. Saturn’s opposition to Uranus was like a check on a runaway system, a corrective to expose excesses and slow unbridled progressive policies that, for all their good intentions, had massive unintended consequences—spiraling debt, moral decline, reverse discrimination, compulsory speech codes, a cult of victimology, an entitlement society, a tyranny of nice.

It was not merely public policy that was driving this trend, but the private sector as well. Western culture was in the grip of an archetypal imperative that pushed it relentlessly in the direction of a halcyonic ideal. Cultural aversion to legitimate suffering was so pervasive there was an 80% increase in prescription drug use between 2003 and 2008. Some of this was due to the normalization of psychoactive medication via a relentless marketing campaign by the pharmaceutical industry. We’ve all seen the commercials: Anxious? Sad? Tired? Take a pill. It reached a point that it was unusual for someone not to be medicated. Medication, of course, is a Piscean phenomenon. In America’s classrooms, increasing numbers of children were on prescribed mood-altering medication to treat conditions like AdHD, while teens were stealing prescription drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin from their parents to take or sell. According to National Institute on Drug Abuse, illicit drug use in 2009 rose to its highest level in 8 years.2

The cultural edict that it was now immoral for anyone to feel bad for any reason was evidenced by runaway litigation over minor mishaps (e.g., suing McDonalds over spilt coffee), enabling social policies that reinforce dependency on government handouts, no-touch rules in elementary schools to safeguard children from being bullied, the sissification of boys via the banning of competitive games like tag and dodge ball (because the losers might feel bad), the mainstreaming of homosexuality in sex education programs to assure that gay kids are accepted, helicopter parenting leading to narcissistically entitled children, blasphemy laws to shield religious groups (Islam in particular) from being criticized, grade inflation to protect children’s self-esteem, the rewarding of trophies merely for participating (rather than winning), and on and on.

While Saturn could never completely stifle the Uranus-Pisces revolution toward a softer, kinder, gentler world, it could balance it with complementary, alternative values such as pragmatism, self-reliance, personal responsibility, frugality, and respect for tradition. True Uranus-Saturn collaboration might manifest as ordered change that produces a more flexible, unified, and humane government; yet, one that recognizes limits and is able to cap spending when necessary. That is a fairly good description of what happened following the mid-term elections in November 2010 when Republican’s gained control of the House of Representatives while Democrats retained control of the Senate. The new balance in Congress seemed to reflect the achievement of a greater collective balance between Uranian and Saturnian sensibilities. Representative of this trend was a legislative compromise in December that involved Democrats keeping the Bush tax cuts—a cap on taxes for all income levels—in exchange for Republican agreement to extend unemployment benefits. Both parties had to give and take.

Environmental and Other Disasters

Cap is a distinctly Saturnian word that was much in the news during 2009-2010. A cap is a cover or top that defines the upper limit of something. As a verb, it means to limit or restrict. Placing a cap on taxes and federal spending are but two examples. Here are a few more:

1. A volcano in Iceland (Eyjafjallajökull) blew its cap in April 2010 when Saturn was exactly opposed Uranus. Spewing an ash plume thirty thousand feet into the sky, it shut down air traffic over parts of Europe for several weeks. Cause: Volcanoes occur when molten rock under enormous pressure inside the earth finds a funnel and erupts upwards through a hole in the earth’s crust.

2. Also occurring in April of 2010 was the BP oil spill followed by innumerable attempts to cap the damaged well that was spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of 2 million gallons per/day. Cause: Oil under pressure deep inside the earth will erupt into a gusher when a sufficient funnel is provided.

3. We are reminded also of legislative efforts to pass cap and trade, which is designed to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective manner. Cause: Carbon dioxide emissions occur from burning fossil fuels in enclosed spaces under pressure. The waste product—CO2—is then ejected (liberated) into the atmosphere through a pipe.

In each of these instances, we see the Uranian impulse for liberation clashing with Saturn’s function to control, limit, or suppress. The scientific definition of liberate means quite literally “to release a gas or liquid during a chemical reaction.” Something similar happens during earthquakes when stresses induced by molten rock between two continental plates cause the plates to suddenly shift, fracturing Earth’s brittle outer crust and releasing the stored elastic energy that has accumulated over many years. Recall that two massive earthquakes occurred during the Saturn-Uranus opposition. In January 2010 there was the catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Haiti earthquake that killed more than 230,000 people. One month later in Chile there was an earthquake so powerful it caused standing waves in lakes along the U.S. southern border and shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds.

Independent of the signs involved, these events were consistent with Saturn opposed Uranus. Saturn signifies an inhibitory, controlling power, whereas Uranus represents an impulse for emancipation and release. Stresses induced from an irresistible force (Uranus) pressing against an immovable object (Saturn) are bound to erupt in explosive change, whether this occurs on a social, political, or ecological level. Uranus, in effect, signifies a breakthrough, although it can also signify a breakdown in Saturnian structure. This is effectively what happened when the BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf. A wellhead blowout is the uncontrolled release of gas or oil after pressure control systems have failed. An analogous failure was the inability of the Republican minority in congress to stop skyrocketing deficit spending by the Democratic majority. Throughout 2009-2010 we were reminded daily by the media that the national debt had “exploded” to more than 13 trillion dollars.3

The archetypal situation comes into even sharper focus when we consider the signs that these two planets occupied—Pisces and Virgo. As a signifier of the spiritual realm, Pisces is associated with no boundary, i.e., the infinite and eternal wherein all is one; everything and everyone is enveloped in an all-pervasive, non-discriminating love. Again, Uranus in Pisces signifies an awakening of compassion for marginalized groups. When this archetypal dynamic seeps into government, there is a trend toward progressive ideologies that favor reforms in an egalitarian direction in which all members of society enjoy equal standing and equal access to economic resources. ‘Social justice’ is code for redistribution of income based on progressive taxation and the welfare state in which the top 50 percent of wage earners pay all of the taxes and the bottom 50 percent — the poor, disabled, and elderly —pay no taxes and receive money from the tax system via tax credits, food stamps, welfare payments, Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and various other entitlements.4

As an antidote to discrimination, Uranus in Pisces is synonymous with Utopian social engineering and the promotion of political correctness to assure that no group is offended or subject to any form of exclusion or rejection. Affirmative action, racial quotas, multiculturalism, and gay marriage all increased dramatically during the seven years that Uranus has been in Pisces. Similarly, the Community Reinvestment Act that mandated banks to expand mortgage loans to low-income minority groups intensified over this period. It was this practice—the lowering of mortgage standards so that previously unqualified borrowers could get a loan—that led directly to the mortgage blowout of 2008.

Welfare spending and other egalitarian programs accelerated during the first two years of Obama’s presidency even as Saturn in Virgo sought to oppose them on the basis of taxpayer cost. Prior to Saturn’s entry into Virgo in late 2007, the Uranus/Pisces utopian dream proceeded unchallenged. Saturn’s subsequent opposition to Uranus from late 2008 through the summer of 2010 operated like a giant break on the system, a wake-up call, a reality check. Yet, attempting to change direction after five unrestrained years of Uranus/Pisces momentum was like trying to turn around an air craft carrier barreling across the seas at full throttle. Despite resistance from fiscal conservatives, the Obama administration expanded its efforts to provide aid to the poor. According to a special report by the Heritage Foundation:

In his first two years in office, President Barack Obama will have increased annual federal welfare spending by one-third from $522 billion to $697 billion. After adjusting for inflation, this increase is two-and-a-half times greater than any previous increase in federal welfare spending in U.S. history. Under President Obama, government will spend more on welfare in a single year than President George W. Bush spent on the war in Iraq during his entire presidency. According to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of the Iraq war through the end of the Bush Administration was around $622 billion. By contrast, annual federal and state means-tested welfare spending will reach $888 billion in FY 2010. Federal welfare spending alone will equal $697 billion [this] year.5

Needless to say, such policies encountered increasingly stiff resistance as Saturn opposed Uranus throughout 2009-2010. In an article entitled “A Government without Bounds,” Ramesh Ponnur reviewed William Voegeli’s recent (2010) book, Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State.6 The title of both Ponnur’s article and Voegeli’s book aptly summarize Saturn/Virgo’s perspective on Uranus/Pisces’ idealism. The main thrust of Never Enough is that liberalism has no “limiting principle,” meaning that it constantly finds new needs for government to meet—e.g., universal health care, welfare, racial quotas—and can find no reason not to meet them. Pisces symbolizes an all-inclusive unity, and this by definition leaves nothing out. Saturn/Virgo, which is a limiting principle, has a problem with that.

At a mundane level, the Piscean unifying principle is associated with substances that transcend or permeate boundaries, such as gases and liquids, most notably the atmosphere and oceans. As a process, Pisces symbolizes the dissolving of solids into liquids and gases, as when ice melts and further heated turns to steam. With Uranus in Pisces for the past seven years, there has been one revelation after another with regards to global warming—the melting of the polar ice cap, rising oceans, and so on.7 If Uranus is change and Pisces is atmosphere, the very pairing of the two words “climate change” expresses Uranus/Pisces.

However, when Saturn in Virgo opposed Uranus in Pisces, the situation turned critical. Saturn represents a counterforce to challenge and potentially ground (halt, slow, check) the Uranus in Pisces thrust. The consequences of an unrestrained, unregulated Uranus/Pisces dynamic, e.g., excessive greenhouse gas emissions, crystallized in public awareness and produced efforts to halt global warming through the green movement and climate change legislation (carbon cap and trade); yet, Saturn in Virgo also cast doubt on climate alarmism—inflated, inaccurate claims combined with federal financial backing of questionable research (more deficit spending). Saturn in Virgo is a decidedly skeptical, critical position; thus, in November 2009, Climategate exploded with the internet leak of documents that appeared to show evidence that climate scientists manipulated data and suppressed the publication of dissenting scientific papers for reasons of political and financial gain.8

Another example of the Pisces-Virgo dynamic was efforts to fix the BP oil leak, clean up the effects of the spill, and improve drilling technology. Oil and water is Pisces’ realm, whereas to fix problems, clean up messes, and improve overall functionality is Virgonian. Saturn in Virgo was especially evident in calls to break our addiction to oil, especially foreign oil, which has been targeted as the ultimate problem. With regard to gases, recall how the Icelandic volcano produced an atmospheric problem due to the explosive release of gas and magma under pressure. This event caused innumerable delays and scheduling problems (Saturn/Virgo) for the airlines industry (Uranus).

As mentioned, Pisces symbolizes dissolution and disintegration, which are closely related to tragedy—a disastrous event that produces ruin, downfall, and often fatality. Consider the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake wherein an entire city—Port-au-Prince—was reduced to rubble. The international, humanitarian effort that followed again exemplified Uranus/Pisces (altruistic aid to relieve suffering) in concert with Saturn/Virgo (solving problems related to Haiti’s feeble architecture and dysfunctional government).

Especially representative of Uranus in Pisces is the problem of illegal immigration, which is essentially a Uranian movement characterized by collapsed boundaries and unenforced limits. Again, Pisces is associated with permeability; hence, during Uranus’ 2003-2011 sojourn through Pisces, the No Border Network sprung up throughout Europe and the United States. A loose association of radical groups, it supports the elimination of boundaries that impede unrestricted migration across national borders. As a movement for no boundaries, the No Border Network is a prototypical manifestation of Uranus in Pisces. When Saturn opposed Uranus in 2008, however, conservative forces began to push back against lax immigration enforcement. Daily the media sounded the alarm about the porous U.S. border with Mexico and the flood of illegal aliens streaming into our country. Arizona officials beseeched the federal government to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

Note the use of water metaphors to depict the Piscean nature of the problem—porous, flood, streaming, and flow—which is analogous to the uncontrolled flow of oil into the Gulf. Saturn in Virgo, on the other hand, was evident in renewed government efforts to prevent problems caused by weak border control: drug smuggling, human trafficking, overcrowded prisons, overtaxed schools, and an overrun healthcare system, not to mention the taking of at least some jobs that might otherwise go to U.S. citizens. Ultimately Arizona took matters into its own hands by implementing a tougher intrastate, anti-illegal immigration policy. Recognizing the need for a long overdue corrective, a clear majority of U.S. citizens supported Arizona’s hardline stand. Illegal immigration was a defining issue of 2009-2010 and yet another example of a radical, border-shattering force clashing with an inhibitory, controlling power.

A final and perhaps even more telling example is the problem of Islamic extremism. Uranus is about tolerance and egalitarianism, and Pisces signifies compassion. Together, they symbolize the awakening of compassion for the plight of disadvantaged minority groups, like Muslims as potential victims of hate crimes. In the grip of this cultural imperative, it became difficult to identify and apprehend potential Islamic terrorists within our own borders, as in the case of Major Nidal Hassan who murdered 13 servicemen at Fort Hood. Political correctness prevented Hassan’s superiors from having him discharged despite the fact that he openly expressed extremist Islamic views and was being monitored by the FBI for his contact with renowned Al Qaeda operative, Anwar al-Awlaki. After 13 murders and 32 wounded service men and women, George Casey, the Army Chief of Staff, uttered a typical Uranus in Pisces sentiment: “As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” Conservative pundits charged that the Obama administration was so fearful of offending Muslims that they could not even admit that there is a war on terror. This led to a string of government failures to remove Hassan from the military despite the fact that he was widely characterized as a “ticking time bomb.”9

A similar case involved Umar Abdul Mutallab, an Al Qaeda operative who attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. U.S. intelligence officials had foreknowledge of Mutallab’s extremism but due to lax procedures failed to apprehend him before his attempted murder of 289 people. Swirling around such examples was the larger controversy of how terrorists should be treated—as enemy combatants confined indefinitely to military prisons like Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, or as garden variety criminals given full legal rights, tried in U.S. cities, and potentially released. Saturn in Virgo would opt for maximum control, which is the conservative/Republican position, whereas Uranus in Pisces signifies the liberal/Democratic penchant for granting rights and expressing compassion. Once again we see the challenge of bringing Saturnian control into proper balance with the Uranian impulse for tolerance and emancipation.

A more lasting antidote to political correctness than Saturn could provide may be fast approaching. Uranus moves into Aries on Mar. 12, 2011 where it will remain for the next seven years. With Uranus in Aries, the cultural ethos will take a radically different turn: personal freedom, self-reliance, individual initiative, and a tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners survivalist mentality will become dominant social values, either by choice or necessity. We are likely to see an awakening of directness, a tell-it-like-it-is frankness and do-whatever-it takes attitude that is compensatory to all that typified Uranus in Pisces. A harbinger of Uranus in Aries may be the recent upheavals in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, and other Arab countries, the spark for which was ignited by a single individual who self-immolated on Dec. 18 as a protest against Tunisia’s corrupt and incompetent regime. World attention then focused on Egypt, where massive protests began on January 25th just as Jupiter ingressed into Aries. The climatic events were aptly termed “day of rage,” a somewhat alarming tribute to Aries and perhaps a preview of what’s to come when Uranus joins Jupiter in Aries this March. Uranus in Aries might best be summarized as a demand for change now. Separatist movements, the rise of militia groups, acts of civil disobedience, social unrest, and clashes with government forces may become increasingly prevalent during the next seven years.

Summary and Conclusion

A planetary archetype by definition is a general category of meaning that can manifest in a variety of ways. Saturn opposed Uranus can take different forms on social, political, economic, and ecological levels, and no doubt will manifest differently in different cultures; yet, there is an archetypal singularity amongst all this phenomenological diversity. Each event on its own terms is a metaphor of every other event that carries a similar meaning. The overarching planetary processes are so pervasive that they constitute the very air we breathe, the thoughts we think, the problems we confront, and the goals we seek to achieve.10

The startling fact that planetary alignments correspond so exactly to human experiences gives us pause to reflect. If such events are orchestrated by a divine intelligence that exceeds us in every way imaginable, what might be their purpose? How can we express and coordinate these archetypal polarities in our own lives? The value of archetypal astrology is that it enables us to see our individual experiences through the lens of a purposive, intelligent Universe that speaks to us through the symbolic movements of the heavens. The objectivity such a perspective affords empowers us to collaborate and participate in the unfolding of a co-creative evolutionary process. Rather than become polarized—e.g., either too far right (Saturn/Virgo) or too far left (Uranus/Pisces)—the opportunity at hand is to arrive at a more just and balanced view that aligns itself with the harmony of the cosmos. Certainly, if nothing else, astrology invites us to trust the Universe, which is forever conspiring to foment our personal and collective evolution.

Notes

1. Even McCain, however, had a Uranian streak, being renowned for his maverick, independent spirit. In comparison to the visionary Obama, however, his conservatism forced him into a Saturnian role.

2. “Drug Abuse at Highest Level in Nearly a Decade,” Vol. 23, 2010, NIDA, http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol23N3/tearoff.html

3. During the Obama administration, the federal debt has gone from 10 trillion to 14 trillion in less than two years. In comparison, the previous record spending by the Bush administration was 500 billion per/year. Obama’s rate of spending is more than three times greater than any prior administration.

4. Morris, D, and McGann, E. (2009). Catastrophe. New York, NY: Harper Collins, p. 46-47.

5. Rector, R., Bradley, K., and Sheffield, R in “Obama to Spend 10.3 Trillion on Welfare: Uncovering the Full Cost of Means-Tested Welfare or Aid to the Poor,” Heritage Special Report, SR-67, September 16, 2009. This article can be read in its entirely at: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports

6. Ponnur, R. “A Government Without Bounds,” in National Review, Vol. LXII, No. 9, May 17, 2010, p. 48-49.

7. Multiple books have been published on global warming during Uranus’ sojourn through Pisces (2003-2010), including three by Al Gore plus a movie, An Inconvenient Truth, in 2006.

8. Dissenting scientists have argued in numerous books and articles that the earth has been warming and cooling since the beginning of recorded time. Some research suggests that cycles are mostly caused by Sun spot activity rather than man-made carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

9. Serrano, R., “Report: Lots of missed clues before Fort Hood,” in the Hartford Courant, Feb. 4, 2011, p. A5.

10. This is even more apparent when these two behemoths activate sensitive points in our natural chart. For what is happening on a collective level then has personal significance. Collective events serve as metaphors for what we must strive to achieve in our individual lives, albeit in accordance with the nature of the natal planet(s) being transited.

The main difference between the natal chart and the astronomical reality it portrays is that the natal chart has two dimensions rather than three, and it does not reflect the varying distances of the planets from the Earth. What the birth chart does convey is the exact pattern of angular relationships existing between the planets and the Earth at the time and place of one’s birth. The basic principle of astrology is that the planets have a fundamental, cosmically based connection to specific archetypal forces or principles which influence human existence, and that the patterns formed by the planets in the heavens bear a meaningful correspondence to the patterns of human affairs on the Earth. In terms of individuals, the positions of the planets at the time and place of a person’s birth are regarded as corresponding to the basic archetypal patterns of that person’s life and character.

Astrology makes possible a further understanding of one’s life – its cycles, its ups and downs, the crises and the breakthroughs, the periods of major change and transformation – through the study of transits. Transits occur when the planets currently in the sky form certain geometrical patterns with respect to the planetary positions at one’s birth. The nature of those patterns – which planets are involved and how they are positioned – appears to correlate in a strikingly consistent way with the archetypal character of the experiences one tends to have at that time.

Three Primary Issues

To begin, I would like to address three important matters that people usually need discussed when approaching astrology. The first concerns the nature of archetypes, the second involves the question of determinism vs. free will, and the third concerns the nature of astrology’s causal mechanism, or why it works. These three issues are closely interrelated.

First, what is an archetype? Archetypes can be understood and described in many ways, and in fact much of the history of Western thought from Plato and Aristotle onward has been concerned with this very question. But for our present purposes, we can define an archetype as a universal principle or force that affects – impels, structures, permeates – the human psyche and human behavior on many levels. One can think of them as primordial instincts, as Freud did, or as transcendent first principles as Plato did, or as gods of the psyche as James Hillman does.

Archetypes (for example Venus or Mars) seem to have a transcendent mythic quality, yet they also have very specific psychological expressions – as in the desire for love and the experience of beauty (Venus) or the impulse towards forceful activity and aggression (Mars). Moreover, archetypes seem to work from both within and without, for they can express themselves as impulses and images from the interior psyche, yet also as events and situations in the external world.

Jung thought of archetypes as the basic constituents of the human psyche, shared cross-culturally by all human beings, and he regarded them as universal expressions of the collective unconscious. Much earlier, the Platonic tradition considered archetypes to be not only psychological but also cosmic and objective, as primordial forms of a Universal Mind that transcended the human psyche. Astrology would appear to support the Platonic view as well as the Jungian, since it gives evidence that Jungian archetypes are not only visible in human psychology, in human experience and behavior, but are also linked to the macrocosm itself – to the planets and their movements in the heavens. Astrology thus supports the ancient idea of an anima mundi, or world soul, in which the human psyche participates. From this perspective, what Jung called the collective unconscious can be viewed as being ultimately embedded within the cosmos itself.

The issue of free will vs. determinism: It used to be believed that astrology revealed a person’s destined fate, that the birth chart was rigidly deterministic. Properly understood, however, astrology can serve to greatly increase personal freedom, rather than limit it. Partly this is because awareness of the basic archetypal structures and patterns of meaning in one’s birth chart allows one to bring considerably more consciousness to the task of fulfilling one’s deepest potential, one’s authentic nature.
But astrology’s emancipatory character also derives from the fact that the more deeply we understand the archetypal forces that affect our lives, the more free we can be in our dealings with them. If we are altogether unconscious of these potent forces, we are like puppets of the archetypes: we then act according to unconscious motivations without any possibility of our being intelligent agents interacting with those forces. To the exact extent that we are conscious of the archetypes, we can respond with greater autonomy and self-awareness. This is of course the whole rationale for depth psychology, from Freud and Jung onward – to become conscious of the unconscious, to release ourselves from the bondage of blind action, to explore and experience the hidden forces in the human psyche. Astrology’s great merit is that it seems to reveal very precisely which archetypes are especially important to each person, how they interact with each other, and when and how they are most likely to be expressed in the course of each life.
Related to this issue is the question of our birth, and how random is the fate by which we are assigned something as weighty as the birth chart with its specific configuration of planets. I personally believe that the circumstances of our birth are not accidental, but are in some sense a consequence of our spiritual and karmic character. Like many others, I have come to believe that we choose the circumstances of our lives, we choose the family and culture and age into which we are born, and that this choice is somehow made from a higher level of our spiritual being than that of which we are usually conscious.

From this point of view, the birth chart is not the randomly allotted prison structure of our inexorable fate, but can be seen rather as defining the basic structure of our potential unfolding – suggesting the personal gifts and trials that we have chosen for this lifetime to work with and evolve through. Astrology illuminates the fundamental archetypal dynamics that profoundly condition our lives, which is not to say they absolutely determine our lives. Because our personal response to life always contains an element of unpredictability and potential freedom, and because astrology gives a greater understanding of our basic archetypal complexes and their timing, then a knowledge of our birth chart and transits can significantly increase the range of options, flexibility and intelligence with which we approach life. The study of astrology can be extraordinarily liberating.

Finally, the issue of a causal mechanism, or why astrology works: It seems unlikely to me that the planets send out some kind of physical emanations that causally influence events in human life in a mechanistic way. The range of coincidences between planetary positions and human existence is just too vast, too experimentally complex, too aesthetically subtle and endlessly creative to be explained by physical factors alone. I believe that a more plausible and comprehensive explanation is that the universe is informed and pervaded by a fundamental holistic patterning which extends through ever level, so that a constant synchronicity or meaningful correlations exists between astronomical events and human events. This is represented in the basic esoteric axiom, “as above, so below,” which reflects a universe all of whose parts are integrated into an intelligible whole.

From this perspective, the planets themselves are not “causing” anything to be happening in our lives, any more than the hands on a clock are now causing it to be 7:30 PM. Rather, the planetary positions are indicative of the cosmic state of the archetypal forces at that time. The fact that the planets constantly seem to indicate these things with such accuracy simply suggests that the cosmic order is much more profound and pervasive than our conventional beliefs have assumed. But the relationship between a specific planetary pattern and a human experience is best seen as one of meaningful correlation or correspondence, not one of simple linear causality.

There is, however, a sense in which causality does enter into the astrological perspective, and this is the sense of archetypal causation (comparable to Aristotle’s concepts of formal and final causes). While the physical planets themselves may bear only a synchronistic connection with a given human experienced, that experience is nevertheless being affected or caused – influenced, patterned, impelled, drawn forth – by the relevant planetary archetypes, and in this sense it is quite appropriate to speak, for example, of Saturn (as archetype) “influencing” one in a specific way, or as “governing” certain kinds of experience.

But why should the cosmos have established a systematic correspondence between planetary patterns and archetypally patterned phenomena in human lives? There are many possible answers to this questions, not the least of which might point toward a kind of intrinsic aesthetic splendor in the universe, an overflow of cosmic intelligence and delight that reveals itself in this continuous marriage of mathematical astronomy and mythic poetry. But in more pragmatic human terms, my sense of astrology is that the constant coincidence between planetary positions and human lives exists as a kind of universal code for the human mind to unravel, so that we can better understand ourselves and our world, rediscover our deep connection to the cosmos, and be more complete human beings.